Former critics rallying to Chambliss in runoff

Republican had angered some conservatives

EAST ELLIJAY - On Election Day, Republican Mark Chastain cast his ballot for Libertarian Allen Buckley in Georgia's U.S. Senate race. Now that the contest is heading into a nationally watched runoff, he's coming back into the GOP fold and says he'll vote - somewhat grudgingly - for Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

"We've got to elect Saxby because he's the closest thing to a Republican we have in the runoff," Chastain said at a Chambliss rally Saturday in North Georgia.

As Chambliss sprints toward a Dec. 2 rematch with Democrat Jim Martin, unease with Chambliss among some Georgia conservatives is turning into acceptance. Republicans angry with Chambliss over his support for the $700 billion federal financial bailout bill and an immigration measure critics likened to amnesty are getting over it - fast. The stakes are too high, they say.

"We're the last stand," Chastain said of Georgia.

The Georgia race is one of three unresolved Senate contests nationwide, along with Minnesota and Alaska. All involve Republican incumbents. If Democrats capture all three, it would give them a 60-seat majority, the margin needed to block Republican filibusters.

A Martin win could tip the balance and his campaign is fighting hard. They announced Saturday that former President Bill Clinton would headline a rally Wednesday in Atlanta. Clinton was the last presidential candidate to win Georgia in 1992.

Fear and anger are strong motivators in politics, and Georgia Republicans have both in this extra innings campaign: Fear of what Democrats will do if their agenda is unchecked and anger over an election's outcome, which handed the White House to President-elect Barack Obama.

In a race where turnout will be critical, they say that could help drive voters to the polls.

"Two things motivate people - anger and joy," Truett Moss, a 78-year-old Republican organizer from Calhoun, said. "It's pretty obvious which one is at work in this campaign. It'll get people to come out and vote that's for sure."

At Poole's Bar-B-Q in Georgia's apple country Saturday, Chambliss implored supporters to come back out to vote and issued a dire warning about the higher taxes and spending he said would accompany Democratic dominance in Washington. Buckley ran disproportionately well in the area on Election Day, pulling votes from disaffected Republicans.

Joe McCutcheon likes to take some credit for that. McCutcheon, a well-known conservative activist from Ellijay, has a public access television show broadcast around North Georgia and became a vocal supporter of Buckley. McCutcheon was furious with Chambliss over the Farm Bill, which the Moultrie Republican co-authored. McCutcheon said it was loaded down with giveaways and freebies.

Still, he's backing Chambliss in the runoff and thinks the senator - now battling for his political survival - got the message.

"I'm fired up about him," McCutcheon said. "I don't like too much spending and Jim Martin is all about spending."

Martin - campaigning along the Georgia coast Saturday - disputed that. He argued that Republicans have gotten the nation in its current financial mess and that Georgians don't want to elect a senator who will simply be there as a roadblock to progress.

"Barack Obama is sending out a message of bipartisanship," Martin said. "We need a Democratic senator in there who is going to work with him to get things done."